Kefir nodded his understanding of that point, but he didn’t seem to leap ahead and realise anything more than that.
“You have no idea who did write it, or if he has the slightest clue what he’s talking about,” Ellery expanded.
Kefir nodded again.He thought about it all for a little while.“He was wrong, sir?”
“Yes,” Ellery bit out, not quite able to hide his annoyance with the nameless, faceless internet idiot.“Probably about a great many things.”
The little lion seemed to ponder on that, the same way he dissected everything Ellery said to him.“Which things, sir?”
That’s what Ellery wanted to know, too.He couldn’t fix anything until he knew.“Well, I wouldn’t have invited you onto the bed, if I wanted you to sleep on the floor,” Ellery suggested, as a nice, easy starting point.
Kefir looked up at the mattress.“Invited me onto the other side of the bed, sir?”
He was doing his best.That much was obvious—even if Ellery hadn’t quite got them onto the same page yet, it wasn’t because Kefir wasn’t doing his absolute best.Ellery held out a hand to Kefir and guided him to clamber back up onto the bed and then to climb over him, so he was back on the right side.
He only stopped Kefir short when he’d have moved properly over to the empty side of the bed.
“Close is fine,” he said.
Kefir purred as he took full advantage of the permission, snuggling up against Ellery as if he’d been granted something wonderful.
Ellery shook his head, more at himself than at Kefir.“Happy now, kitten?”
Kefir didn’t stop rubbing his forehead against Ellery’s shoulder when he gave his answer, and his response was too muffled to make out.
“Kefir?”
“A cub, sir, not a kitten,” Kefir corrected, gently, as he lifted his head a fraction.“Lions young are called cubs.”
“You don’t remind me of a cub.You remind me of a kitten.”
Kefir lifted his head a little more.Ellery could almost hear the words turning over inside his head.Still on the steepest part of the feline-human learning curve, Ellery found himself unable to guess how a lion would react, what the word might mean to him.
A brief, beautiful smile, a quick nod, and Kefir dropped his head back onto Ellery’s shoulder.If nothing else, he seemed to realise it was an affectionate label and not an insult.
“And the only time I’d send my sub to sleep away from me was if he’d behaved very badly and I was very displeased with him,” Ellery told him
“Always be pleased with me, sir?”Kefir requested, so sweetly, as if that was all that needed to be done.
Ellery thought for a few seconds.“No.”
Even though he kept the word gentle, Kefir still squirmed his way even closer to him, looking for reassurance.
Ellery stroked his palm down Kefir’s back as he tried to think of a way to explain the whole world to a guy who didn’t seem to have any idea how leather worked, even if he did have a wonderful instinct for submission.“I’ll promise you that I’ll always treat you fairly, and that I’ll always look after you, but I won’t promise that I’ll always be pleased with you.”
He had to be brought to understand.Ellery felt the need to draw Kefir into his world more strongly than ever.The very idea that he could fail in that task made him tighten his hold on the little lion, as if he was afraid Kefir might be snatched away from him at any second.
Kefir didn’t speak as Ellery considered his options.
“There’ll be times when you do displease me, when you’re careless or when you disobey the rules I’ve set for you.And, on those occasions, you’ll be punished.”
Kefir still didn’t say anything, but Ellery could almost hear the sheer effort the boy put in to listening intently to every word he offered to him.
“It might be a physical punishment, like a spanking.Other times, it could be something different.That’s something we’d have to work out over time.But it would be something you dislike.”Ellery wasn’t going to lie to him about that.A dominant had a duty to let his sub know exactly what he was getting himself into.“Punishments shouldn’t be fun—they should make you determined never to make the same mistake again.”
Kefir didn’t pull away.He didn’t object to the entire concept.He nuzzled against Ellery, seeming to instinctively look for reassurance.But, at the same time, there was something about his manner that hinted there was something about that kind of arrangement that appealed to him.
Ellery continued to stroke one hand up and down Kefir’s spine.The little lion had come so close to him, he was practically lying on top of Ellery now.
